Monday morning found Onset Fire Chief Ray Goodwin in the slightly unusual company of a gaggle of wide-eyed children at the Wareham Free Library’s Spinney branch.

Goodwin and firefighter Rachel Rawlings were this week’s special reading guests at Spinney. After Goodwin read the kids a short story about a dog who helped rescue children from a fire, Rawlings demonstrated what a firefighter looks and sounds like wearing full gear.

“Anyone remember Darth Vader from ‘Star Wars’?” Goodwin asked the children. “When we put all of our gear on, we can look very scary, and sound very scary. … But we don’t want you be be scared of us and run from us if there is a fire in your house.”

Goodwin also showed the children a heat sensor, which is used to detect heat signatures.

“See how strange everybody looks?” Goodwin asked, referring to the monochromatic color of the images in the heat sensor. “This is how we see people through the smoke.”

Following the short demonstrations, the children trooped down to the fire station for a tour. Though the loudest cheer of appreciation was for the pizza lunch at the end of the tour, the children also got to climb into a fire truck, and use a hose.

Goodwin said visiting with the children and taking them on a tour of the station was important on multiple levels, not the least of which was seeing a firefighter in full gear in a non-threatening environment, so the children would not run from them should an emergency arise.

“When children see them in this environment, it’s not a strange person coming through the smoke like a monster,” Goodwin said. “You recognize it’s [a firefighter] in … gear, and you aren’t afraid of her, or anybody else.”

He also said the visit was a great way to keep the fire department in touch with the community, and show the children at an early age that the department is always open to them.

“I want them to know that the fire station is theirs, and they're welcome here at all times,” Goodwin said. “It’s a safe place within the community.”

He also said it was a good way to “recruit future firefighters.”

“They have contact up until the point when they can join, so that they … are already part of the community, part of the station culture, and they can basically integrate right into the department,” Goodwin said. “The call firefighters are very important … We couldn’t have a department without them.”

Librarian Marcia Hickey said she thought Goodwin and Rawlings did an excellent job not only of keeping the children engaged, but also showing them that women and men can do the same job equally well.

“That was the best thing to do, to have a female firefighter come,” Hickey said. “[Goodwin] told me he is definitely recruiting more women.”

Hickey also said she was very happy Goodwin and Rawlings gave the kids some hands-on time at the station.

“To get to use the hose, and get to climb on the front and back [of the firetruck] like that – that kept them active, and that’s what they need, not talking,” Hickey said. “It was wonderful. I don’t think the kids will ever forget it, and I don’t think they will ever be afraid of a firefighter.”